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PaperclipPerfector  1yr ago (text post)   3996 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for July 30, 2023

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

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You've still got a bit left of RI. Watch out for some 4D chess coming up.

I'd be lying if I wasn't already blown away by what the author managed to pull off already, 4D chess undersells it, I'd have an aneurysm trying to keep all the plots straight in my head, and he makes it look easy.

I remember trying my hand at litrpg, only to get a harshly stratified autocracy ruled by people who hoard all the combat classes. Worlds where individual combat power is wildly unequal should have wildly unequal political power IMO, yet nobody else seems to do this.

I'm pretty sure you just described most Xianxia haha, I'm sure there must be a couple that are litrpgs too.

If that excerpt gave you the impression that my fic is one, that isn't actually the case! To skip over quite a bit, the "litrpg" mechanics the protagonist is interacting with here are the decayed and decrepit remnants of when this Simulation was more akin to say, WoW, a system that has basically been left to rot while the rest of the world switched to Xianxia Cultivation for millions of years.

It's played for laughs, since pretty much nothing works, and even a prestige class like what Isaac claims is rather underpowered to put it lightly.

Well Red Lotus has been playing 5D Chess with Multiverse Time Travel the whole time but FY is about to pull some moves too.

I'm pretty sure you just described most Xianxia haha

Yeah, it was one of those incomplete ideas I had before I even got into xianxia, working from Western litrpg stuff where things are surprisingly egalitarian. One of my thoughts was that a precursor civilization would engineer factories to level up its people (like how in minecraft there are mob farms). After the precursors wipe themselves out (who would've guessed that high levels and a physics system dependent on killing people are destabilizing) we get dungeons. I like having organic reasons for things to exist rather than the whole 'dungeon core' trope collection welded onto medieval Europe fantasy setting. Alternate physics should mean alternate politics and alternate culture, which xianxia tends to get right despite its other flaws.

Why the spoiler dude?? It's unmarked too, not that spoiler marks even work for me.

How is that a spoiler? The moment people are first introduced to Red Lotus, it's made clear that he's a time traveller, that's his whole gig. Plus FY is constantly organizing various schemes. It's not specific to say 'oh you should watch carefully for upcoming schemes from the number 1 schemer.' Anyway, don't go on the subreddit if you're this conscious of spoilers.

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